1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods designed to assist small to medium size manufacturers to rapidly respond to competitive bid requests. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods to assist such manufacturers to rapidly evaluate the parameters of a bid project and establish a reasonably accurate estimate of the cost to perform the task in a timely and cost effective manner. The present invention relates to systems and methods to enable manufacturers to optimize productivity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Goods manufacturers have long been the driving force of much of the country's economy. Small to medium manufacturers have played a central role in that activity. This community is competing in world markets and must strive for benchmarking goods and services as “best in class.” One type of manufacturer of interest in regard to the present invention is the machined component parts manufacturer. This type of manufacturer generally uses processes involving the machining and fabrication of metals, sheet metal, and composite materials based upon customer specifications. Machining companies must be prepared, equipped and trained to produce a wide variety of precision parts for companies that design and assemble guidance systems, space communications devices, navigation equipment, pressure vessels, and advanced medical devices, among many others.
However, a competitive global market and substantial pressure to reduce pricing has produced considerable challenge for today's manufacturers. Specific challenges small and medium manufacturers are facing include:                Aggressive competition from the European Market, Mexico and Southeast Asia        Aging ownership of companies without transition plans        Contraction of supply chains by large companies        Stringent supply chain requirements for quality, delivery and cost        The nation's changing demographic that is forcing large companies to diversify their supply chains to reflect their customer base As a result, there has been a substantial decline in the number of such businesses and, relatedly, the number of people employed in this traditional manufacturing sector. As indicated above, the machining sector includes, generally, those organizations that build the parts that go into end-use products, from aircraft to motor vehicles. That job loss may have a detrimental effect on the country's future ability to manufacture supplies that it needs. Further, it may widen existing income gaps between service sector and manufacturing sector jobs, increase competition for low-skill jobs, and reduce the manufacturing sector's competitive edge as the aging skilled workforce is not replaced. Long-term trends indicate that even after the economy has fully recovered from the 2001 recession, employment in manufacturing is unlikely to return to its prerecession level. Over the long term, productivity in manufacturing will continue to increase but sales would have to increase even faster for employment to show any gains.        
The competition for manufacturers involved with private (commercial) and public (government, including defense) customers is increasing dramatically, even after many years of contraction of prime and second-tier manufacturers in the defense industrial base. Over approximately the last 20 years, the number of US-based Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) defense industry manufacturing suppliers has been reduced from 130,000 to 30,000 due to, among other things, mergers and acquisitions by major defense contractors. That contraction has resulted in the direct and indirect elimination of more than two million jobs in the defense sector. In addition, the associated pricing pressures have produced the effect of extending the necessary useful life of many product types, including critical weapon systems, not only because of order reductions, but because of reduction in research and development spending and the procurement of fewer new products. For example, many aircraft in the current operational Air Force are more than 20 years old. Those and other defense systems are expected to be useable for much longer periods of time, while the availability of replacement parts for those systems diminishes as the number of replacement parts required drops over that time period while remaining a critical need to ensure that the system at issue remains viable for its expected service life. Increasingly then, the lack of spare or replacement parts renders large portions of relatively old systems, such as Air Force aircraft, to be unavailable for operation.
Most Prime (direct contractual relationship with the customer) and Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) contractors have recognized these pressures and are defining new strategies that will dramatically change the requirements for the supply chain and suppliers within that chain. For example, the aerospace and defense and commercial Primes and OEMs are transforming themselves from original manufacturers into final assemblers in response to:                increased competition in both commercial and defense sectors;        downward cost pressures from the Department of Defense        increased outsourcing to foreign suppliersThe reconfiguration requires 1st Tier suppliers to manage the bulk of the supply chain and requires 2nd and 3rd Tier suppliers to convert their operations to high mix/low volume production and upgrade the skill sets of their production workers. In fact, the aerospace industry estimates that 50% of the U.S. aerospace suppliers will go out of business in the next 5 years if U.S.-based suppliers fail to make this conversion.This would add to the job loss already experienced in the manufacturing sector.        
This country's SME manufacturers have been the foundation for defense manufacturing supply chains. Yet, many SME manufacturers face significant barriers that prevent them from participating in the supply chains of today, and certainly of tomorrow. These barriers include complex legal and financial bid requirements; a lack of access to technology; the lack of a skilled workforce; the lack of an innovation culture; and the lack of a culture to strive for “continuous improvement.” The most significant barriers are the inability to read and/or translate technical data packages into shop floor level manufacturing specifications and proper pricing and shortage of skilled workers. For example, a typical SME simply does not have the capabilities or skills to undertake this important first step—a step current Prime contractors practice on a regular basis. The small business then wastes 2-3 days creating a “best guess” estimate, which often ends up as a noncompetitive quote. This eliminates their chances of winning the bid and hopes of diversifying revenue sources.
The United States Department of Labor is projecting a shortage by 2012 of 44,000 machinists and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) operators, two of the most important skilled positions in the metals fabrication industry, an industry critical to the independence and capability of the country's defense industrial base. So far, efforts to meet this challenge have fallen short because the demand for increased skills is rising much faster than the capacity of companies, workers, or the nation's educational system to respond. As a result manufacturers are scrambling for workers who can adapt quickly to new tasks and new market demands. These skill deficiencies impair manufacturers' ability to maintain production levels to meet increasing customer demand, implement new productivity improvements, and/or begin new innovative quality initiatives. With a projected skills shortage in CNC programmers/operators and machinists and the difficulties in recruiting students to manufacturing, it will take several years to fill the skills gap—a time advanced manufacturing employers can not afford in a highly competitive global economy.
More generally, any consumer of relatively large products and/or relatively large quantities of products, such as the Department of Defense, Prime and OEM contractors, wishing to purchase a manufactured product, such as a tool, may have difficulty doing so if the quantity desired is relatively small. SME manufacturers generally prefer to fabricate products in relatively large quantities. Therefore, they may have no interest in bidding on a project for which the quantity sought by the consumer falls below some threshold. Alternatively, the SME manufacturer may charge very high prices for relatively small quantities, making it difficult for the consumer to justify the expense to purchase the product desired.
On the other hand, SME manufacturers may have an interest in filling the consumer's order in the quantity desired at a price less than a larger competitor manufacturer would charge. The difficulty lies in bringing together the interested consumer and the willing SME manufacturer under conditions that make the fabrication and sale of the product at an agreed-upon price worthwhile for both parties.
For those suppliers who provide goods and services to government entities, particularly the federal government, there are many administrative hurdles to overcome. Government bidding requirements and contracting terms can be complex and difficult to navigate. Many times, the suppliers tend to be relatively large organizations having the capability, time, and resources to review governmental bid requests and respond in a manner that makes the bid award possible. On the other hand, relatively small suppliers must either partner with a relatively large supplier having access to government contracting sources, or simply avoid bidding on government projects. That avoidance eliminates the aggravation associated with the complexity of the process. It also shuts out such suppliers from that type of business.
Therefore, in order to assist SME manufacturers to rapidly respond competitively to several bid requests on a daily basis, what is needed is a system and related method to enable them to read and analyze technical bid data packages and, where necessary, partner with manufacturers who can provide the complementary skills and production capacities to fulfill bid requirements. Further, what is needed is such a system and related method that enables SME manufacturers to translate such technical information into shop floor level manufacturing specifications and relatively accurate pricing. Yet further, what is needed is such a system and related method that enables SME manufacturers to produce materials responsive to the bid package within a short timeframe. What is also needed is a system and related method to allow SME manufacturers to partner together as needed or desired to provide the necessary full set of skills and production capabilities and capacities to fulfill any particular product requirements deemed desirable to bid on.